COUNTYWIDE : Roth Would Name Terminal After Riley

Orange County’s airport may be named after an actor who sometimes played a Marine, but its new $50-million passenger terminal may be named for a real-life Marine Corps general--Supervisor Thomas F. Riley.

Riley, whose district includes John Wayne Airport, has made the terminal’s completion a personal mission throughout much of his 15 years on the Board of Supervisors.

The new chairman of the board, Don R. Roth, announced during his 1990 chairmanship speech Tuesday that he would seek the dedication in honor of Riley, a longtime friend and a retired Marine Corps brigadier general.

“You can’t help but think that this has been the general’s life the last couple of years,” said Roth, himself a former Navy aviator.

In his speech, Roth also laid out his priorities for his one-year term as chairman: an emphasis on regional solutions to problems common to contiguous counties, including his own proposal to build a jail in the Riverside County desert, and a simplified budget process more understandable to supervisors and the public.

Roth said he looks to the county administrative office to “overhaul our antiquated budget process and to take a long and deep look at the way we do our financial business.”

The other supervisors are supportive of at least exploring Roth’s idea to build a jail in the desert. Roth continued Tuesday to pour water on the board’s previously approved plan to build a jail in Gypsum Canyon in northeastern Orange County with the help of a voter-approved sales tax increase. That plan is opposed by Roth and Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez as well as by some residents in nearby Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.

“I have deep reservations about a sales tax as a financing mechanism,” Roth said. “By eliminating the site-specific opposition, I believe we can convince two-thirds of Orange County’s voters to approve general obligation bonds to build needed criminal justice facilities.”

Roth’s plan to name the new airport terminal for Riley came as a surprise--even to Riley, who said he was “very honored” and “a little shocked.”

The new terminal is part of a $310-million airport modernization program that includes new aircraft taxiways, roadways, parking garages and special freeway ramps reserved for airport traffic. The terminal’s construction has been hampered by repeated delays, and its completion date was recently moved back from April 1 to Sept. 15.

Roth said the idea to name the terminal for Riley was proposed in a letter several months ago by the Orange County Aviation Council, a group of aviation-related businesses.

Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and Vasquez both said they support the idea, which Roth plans to put before the board soon.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder was unavailable for comment.

Riley said that he has turned down requests to have projects named for him, including a park along Upper Newport Bay and a square in Dana Point, because he was still on the board and thought there might be some opposition.

Riley will still be on the board in September, too--and he plans to run for reelection in November--but he said he will not object this time.

“It’s going to be over, and I’ve spent a lot of time on it,” Riley said. “If someone had suggested it to me over a cup of coffee, I might have found reasons why we shouldn’t do it, but I didn’t know about it . . . and I’m not sure Emma Jane Riley (his wife) would be happy if I fought it.”